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Xavier stands on the corner he's been told to be on, dressed in a loose black T-shirt and jeans, he looks around a bit and leans against the corner of the wawa, sliding his hands in pockets and waiting quietly.
There's a roar of a motorcycle; a black number zips around the corner and up the street to park at the corner. Squick takes his helmet off, giving fuschia-and-teal colored hair a shake. He grins, raising one skinny arm to wave vigorously at Xavier. "Nips! You made it!"
He squints at her a bit. "Of course I made it, I would not have agreed to this place and time if there was any doubt about my ability to make it." He quirks a grin and strolls over to her. "So, are you going to take me for a ride.?"
"Aww," he purrs, chucking Xavier under the chin. "I don't have a helmet for you, punkin! I wouldn't want you to get a traumatic brain injury." Squick cracks a hand across Xavier's backside, sauntering for her shop. It's a little one-story shop sandwiched between two other generic shops; there's flash art in the windows, and Squick flips the lights as he opens the door. "After you."
"I'm not sure we can." He says, furrowing a brow. "It would be interesting to find out, but I'm not sure, hrmm" He walks past 'em into the shop to look around. "Have you ever damaged your brain?" He asks squick, as he turns around waiting for him to come in.
Squick splits a huge grin at Xavier, snorting. "Only on purpose. There's not a lot to damage." He giggles, swinging the door shut and locking it behind them. The shop is really simple; it's one workstation set up with a full dentistry chair, a padded table, and two large rolling toolboxes. There's neat shelves and such, the decor minimal, even industrial. Squick hits a button by the door, resulting in a huge screen covering the front windows. As a result, the little space has nothing but privacy.
"Did it change anything or you? You personality, your sensory abilities, anything of the sort?" He takes his shirt off as he studies Squick. "Did blood taste any different, did you smell sounds, were you suddenly calm or devoid of previous kinks?"
Squick tilts their head, pausing; they consider each question, waving an instrument as they answer. "It didn't change anything, I don't think; my personality was the same. Senses, the same. I didn't drink blood at the time, I did not smell sounds, and no, I was just as calm and kinky as I was before." She opens and closes the tool at him like the jaws of an alligator. "Rawr, chomp chomp," says the clamps. "I've come to eat your nippies, om nom."
Xavier laughs and hangs up his shirt somewhere. "Oh, so no brain damage since your embrace? I wonder if it would change us, and if we healed if we would change right back again..."
"I mean, the brain is dead, right?" Squick scrubs his hands at the sink, using a surgical sponge; he is very thorough and meticulous in doing so. "It wouldn't be able to heal the damage, so....okay, I get what you're saying. After I pierce your nipples, I'll bash you over the head with a crowbar."
"I'm not sure I trust your notes to be rigorous enough, but if I find a willing subject, maybe I'll call you to do the bashing. Do you enjoy fighting others?" He takes a seat in the chair. "What is it about my nipples that has you so enamoured?"
"Fiiiine," Squick sighs, pulling on a pair of black vinyl gloves. "You can bash me over the head. For science." Squick picks out various instruments and goodies from his trays, then puts the tray in the mayo stand. He wheels the stand over beside the chair. "Bruh, have you seen your nipples?" Squick raises one perfect brow in a perfect arc. "Who would blame me? You're hot."
"Yes, most evenings when I step out of the shower, though sometimes the mirror is too fogged up and i miss them, a real shame, those are my worse days." He grins a touch, clearly teasing. "I find it interesting you're wearing gloves and washed your hands and such. If any sort of microbes did get in through the piercing I"m quite certain they would find my body unsuitable for their so called lives." He watches her curiously.
"Well sure - they would, you're right. But I have standards," he simply replies. Squick opens a packet of swabs the color of rust. She takes a swab and scrubs one of Xavier's nipples, then the other. "I pierce living people too, or people who could still get an infection. And I still want to be the best at what I do - why be lazy, just because you're dead?" Squick tosses the swabs and shucks off her gloves; she opens just the packages of instruments and the needles. "Oh, I forgot to ask. What kind of jewelry?"
"Well, you're the expert, what do you think would make these bad boys shine?" He asks, still grinning. "I didn't even know there were choices to make, to be honest."
"Well, do you want sparkly, sassy, professional? What's your aesthetic?"
"I'm very curious what you consider to be professional looking nipple jewelry, so why don't you start by showing me that?"
Squick gives a thumbs-up and strips off his gloves; he prowls to the front of the shop and returns with two different black trays. One has an assortment of captive bead rings of metal, with the beads being different colors and materials. The other tray is metal barbells with a few of different colors and materials. Squick sets the two trays down, pointing out a row of relatively small, plain barbells. "For the young executive on the go," she explains, then moves to another row. "These are a little more fun - business casual," she classifies, somehow keeping a straight face. She has names just as ridiculous for all the other sections.
"Well, let's go business casual. My wallet is hardly thick enough to justify calling myself a young executive." he peruses the business casual options and picks out the darkest metal with a dark red bead, or black if bloodred isn't an option. "I suppose we'll give those a try, do you think they'll look good on me, should I hold them up to my nipples to make sure it'll all work?"
Squick gives him a bland look of disappointment, one side of his nose wrinkling upward. "Blood red? Really? Should I get you some black lace and a velvet cravat too, Lestat?"
"I thought I could use a splash of color to work against my usual monochromatic style, I really thought you'd be proud." He affects a pout. "Tell you what. I'll close my eyes, surprise me."
"I am proud, but shit! Dark red is like, our brand. Think outside the box!" Squick grins, flicking Xavier's right nipple with a finger. "Hmm...okay. I think I have a good one." Squick makes a selection, then sets the trays to one side. She opens a little sterile metal cup, leaving for a moment to collect sterile jewelry. Humming, he returns to the chair and dons sterile gloves once again. "Ready?"
Xavier closes his eyes. "Ready." He says, his skin is less cold to the touch, the blush in full effect as Squick goes about his work.
"Oh - do you want them horizontal or vertical? Vertical, like..straight up and down in the nipple, horizontal is...horizontal." Squick prepares the needle, ringed forceps ready in the opposite hand.
"Squick, I honestly have no preference, my nipples are yours to do with as you will." He grins a bit, eyes still closed as he waits.
Squick's brows lift, and he waggles the forceps at Xavier. "Don't fall in love with me, kid," Squick drawls, but it's with an amused grin. "Okay, here we go. Right first, it's tradition." Squick tucks a surgical mask on first, changes gloves, and then turns back to Xavier. Squick uses the ring forceps to clamp the nipple and hold it steady; Squick counts to one and then pushes the needle through. "All done," he tells Xavier. "Just hold still." Squick works with deft and steady hands, fitting the barbell to the end of the needle to thread in after. There's a little tugging as Squick adjusts the barbell. "Okay, all done for real. Want to see?"
"Are we only doing the one? I thought I'd wait for the big reveal all at once."
"Oh okay, sure. No, I was planning on doing both. Go big or go home, right?" Squick repeats the process all over again, with fresh gloves and sterile equipment.
He winces a bit at each pierce, opening his eyes when the process is over. "Alright, let's have a look."
"Yep, lemme get you cleaned up." Squick uses a bottle of sterile water and sterile gauze, wiping the betadine stains away. He steps back then, stripping off his gloves and pushing the tray to one side. "Okay, all set."
"Alright.' He gets up and stetches a bit, looking around for a mirror to see what's been done to him!
One wall has a large wardrobe mirror!
He heads over to the mirror then!
In each nipple, Xavier is now sporting a barbell with dark blue balls; when the light catches the metal, the jewelry has a slight iridescent sheen.
"How often to men walk out of your shop with blue balls?" He ask, flatly.
Squick titters, touching the tip of his tongue to his upper lip. "So often," he drawls.
"Well then, I guess I'm in good company." He laughs a little and goes back to sit on the chair. "So, what brings you to Philly?"
Squick cleans up while they talk, dropping the metal instruments and everything in a bath of green liquid. "Ah...my sire kicked the bucked finally, but I found out he left a kid here. So I came to meet the kid."
"Ah, interesting, have you met them yet? Or anyone else of any particular interest? Have you been playing with lots of vampires' nipples?"
"hah!" He tosses his head back for a laugh, gaze sliding to Xavier. "Yeah, I met zher. It's Finley Adams, if you know the name. Uhh...I met a friend of zher's tonight, Phaedra?"
"Not one to kiss and tell, that's refreshing. Yes, I've met the pair of them, though I only met Finley briefly" He nods. "I quite enjoy Phaedra's company."
"Yeah, I liked her. It's always like...this treat to find someone to talk to. Even if it's just about...Lovecraft and monster movies, you know?" Squick pulls one of the tool chests over near the chair, hopping up on it to sit criss-cross. "What about you? Why did you come to Philly?"
"Family, sort of like you." He nods just a touch. "Only, in my case, my sire's broodmate died. He felt it and I'm here to... see if I can get to the bottom of it. It's slow going so far, but i think things will pick up."
Squick's brows rise, yellow-black eyes going round. "No shit? You're here solving a mystery?"
"I hope to. That's what I do, investigate the paranormal, though sometimes that's just an excuse to look into breaches or the like."
"Whoa, awesome. How did you even get into that? Was that like, was that a before-you-died thing, or just after?"
"Both, honestly. I got much better after though." He admit with a wink. "I tried to be a normal.. Well, I mean, I almost joined the FBI, but couldn't quite hack it."
"Oh shit, you tried to go Mulder?! That is bad ass!" Squick leans forward to bump her knuckles against Xavier's. "What's like, the biggest case you ever solved?"
"Hrmmm" He replies, thinking a bit. "I haven't really solved any big cases, I don't exactly try to? Most of it is just explaining, or trying to explain.. strange little things. People tend to go missing from a certain copse of trees and I go find out it's a hunting ground for one of our kind. That sort of thing. One time I found an underground section of chicago that had some old relics and books hidden away."
Squick stares. Blinks once, slowly. "...Why would you NOT solve big cases, dude!?"
"Keeping a low profile. Easier to do what I do when no one's looking. I am more interested in learning something out of the cases than solving them, I suppose. I could solve bigger mysteries I suppose but.. unless they're here in Philadelphia they will have to wait for now."
"Yeah but..you could be like, a consulting detective," Squick exclaims, holding both hands to her head; she then opens both fists, like her mind is blown. "Okay, what's the best thing you've ever learned out of a case, then?"
"That's difficult to quantify, to be honest. Most of what I've found have helped me unlock some of the secrets of my covenant." He tweaks one of his nipples. "I can keep these things like this all day. SOme of it has added to my occult knowledge, some of it's just, I've found historical texts and those sorts of things. Are you interested in solving mysteries? Seeking truths?"
Squick snorts, but it's affable; he raises a brow, holding out a skinny arm. "How do you think I kept all my ink? It ain't exactly just special from Dracula, bruh. I mean, yeah, sure! I've never solved a mystery or anything, but I like mystery movies. I like ghost stories and shit like that."
"I have no idea how you keep all your ink, but I didn't want to pry until we'd spoken a bit more. If you want to tell me, I'm all ears."
"I just think happy thoughts and want it really, really bad and voila, I am a masterpiece."
"Something tells me you'd make yourself a masterpiece without the ink. As unique as you are it would apply either way. Do you live here in the shop or elsewhere? You seem to have settled in quite quickly."
"Aw, we don't need to get that familiar," Squick drawls. "Doesn't matter where I live, for now. You don't have to try and flatter me, either; I'm not a masterpiece, and if I am, then a true masterpiece must be very unnerving. However! That doesn't mean I don't like what I look like. I do. I don't have a thimble full of self-loathing, because I'm just....fucking rad, frankly." Squick gives Xavier a crooked grin. "I can definitely take unique; I like that."
"Not flattery, different definitions I suppose." He grins back at him. "If you -couldn't- take unique, you're definitely doing something wrong. Anyways, anything you're looking into around here? Trying to get going for yourself?"
"Oh yeah," Squick agrees, nodding. "I'd be a fucking fraud. Uhh...nope! I mean, not really. I don't really know what's up around here. There's apparently some evil Innsmouth mermaids that want to..fuck an old god? Bring an old god to life? Or it's already to life? It loves the sea, I remember that much." A beat, and then: "It sings the song of the sea. Anyway, that sounds terrible. I found some diner where supernaturals can hang out, so I put up a flier. I'll tattoo Peter Pan on some pixie's ass and love it."
"Diner? I think I heard something about that.. what's it called again?"
"Maggie's. No, Mary's. Fuck! Maddy's, there we go. Nailed it." Squick giggles, giving Xavier a finger-gun.
"Have you met anyone interesting there? I've got the number for a mage who can fix cel phones."
"No, I just stayed long enough to put my flier up. I miss waffles a lot and hers look pretty good. Not good enough to hork it up later, but close."
"Are you still pretty new to all of this then? I'm not sure I remember what waffles taste like." He considers that, visibly rolling his tongue around in his mouth as he does so, like he's trying to catch a lost flavor somewhere.
"I dunno, define 'new'? I wouldn't be dead yet, if I was still alive. If that makes sense."
"That makes total sense." He nods. "Were you embraced more than a decade ago? I guess I would consider less than a decade still pretty new."
"It was probably around a decade, yeah. Sounds about right." Squick's eyes roll upward in the process of mental math, lower lip caught between her teeth.
"Right, the brain damage." He sys, with a grin. "So, what's next?" He asks, flicking his nipples.
"You gonna leave those in, or wimp out and let 'em pop while you sleep?" Squick leans forward to put his elbows on his knees, planting his chin in his hands.
He rubs his forehead, then shrugs. "I suppose I'll leave them in, you worked harder on it than I expected."
Squick laughs, kicking the seat of the chair with one foot. "Wow, real nice! What'd you expect me to do, pierce it with a junk needle?"
"I don't know anything about peircing and never really considered it, if I'm to be completely honest. I suppose I thought you'd shove something through there." He admits, looking down. "But that's mostly because that's just how I thought it was done, not because I thought you would cut corners."
"I mean. That's what I did, I shoved a needle through it."
"There you go then." He laughs a bit. "ANyways, yeah, we'll leave 'em in, see how it goes."
"Good. It's eighty-five plus twenty for the jewelry, by the way." Squick's face splits in a wide, hacksaw sort of grin.
He nods and pulls out his wallet, he flips through it and gives Squick sixty bucks. "I'm just gonna pre-emptively deduct for the sexual harassment on the way in and the pain and suffering you did to my backside."
He's rewarded with a sincere peal of surprised laughter; Squick winks at him, leaning to one side to tuck the cash away. "Well, I guess that's fair. At least now I know your going rate for popping you one across that ass. Woo-oo-rth it."
Xavier clearly takes a moment to consider a come back and decides to let it drop at that rather than dig himself any further into where this conversation could end up. "I'm glad you find the terms agreeable." Is his lame reply. "For now though, I should probably get going. How long will it take you to get through the other clans and come back to harasing Mekhet again, do you think?" the wry grin is still there as he asks.
Squick gives him a sympathetic tug of one cheek, her brow furrowing. "Gosh, I dunno," she admits. "You guys just make it so easy, sometimes I just don't even bother with the other clans."
"Well I suppose I'd best make it easy on you, don't want you making anything hard on me." He pulls out his phone and hands it to Squick. "Go ahead and text yourself, then you can find me whenever."
"Okay, I'll give you my number - but only if you agree that the next big case drops in your lap or something, I get to be your sidekick." Squick takes Xavier's phone, typing in his number. "I like to text. Fair warning."
"I often have my ringer off, so if I don't respond right away, I guess just keep texting more and more outrageous things until I answer. Or text me what sorts of things you can do as a sidekick." He nods and goes to put his shirt back on.
"Whoa, whoa," Squick hops down, lifting both hands in surrender. "I didn't say I was going to do a resume. You just gotta trust me!"
"Well, when I get a big case, we'll work out the particulars, until then, I'm eager to see what sorts of texts I get."
"Me too," Squick admits. "I can't wait to see what kinda shit I come with to harrass you over. I needed a hobby."
"Happy to be of service." He says with a grin, before heading on out!
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